The present invention is directed to a wireless communications system. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a wireless communications connection device for conferencing and content sharing among a number of participants in a mobile environment.
Conference calls are an essential part of business worldwide. Many companies operate on a national or multinational level. Where operations must be coordinated, then the need for conference calls between remote offices becomes obvious.
Typically one or more local parties to a conference call gather in a conference room to place a call to the remote party. A conference phone is placed in the center of a table surrounded by conference participants. A conference phone also may be utilized at the remote location to permit a plurality of remote parties to participate in the conference call. Such conference phones are typically provided with microphones/speakers on two or more sides and a volume control.
Conference phones tend to operate in only one direction at a time because of feedback. In most cases, if a conference phone is receiving a voice signal from a remote party, it disables a local microphone. If a speaker should pause or finish speaking, then the microphones on both ends may be activated. In this case, the first side to begin speaking would gain control of the channel.
While conference phones work relatively well, they suffer from a number of deficiencies. In addition to the difficulty caused by both sides speaking at the same time, not all participants around a conference table can hear or be heard, especially if such participant is not directly in front of the speaker.
In order to solve the problems associated with prior art conference calling, U.S. Pat. No. 6,801,611 to Guccione et al. describes a hand-held conferencing device into which participants may plug headsets. A remote party may be joined to the conference call via a cellular telephone or other personal communications device.
While Guccione et al. is an improvement over prior devices, it still failed to offer conference call participants the needed mobility. For example, conference calls may often be required at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places. Moreover, the need to carry an extra hand-held conferencing device is inconvenient and unnecessary.
Accordingly, there exists a need for conferencing features that are more convenient and that allow wireless communications between conferencing participants, both during a conference call and in the absence of a conference call (“non-call conferencing”). Applicant developed a technology to address such a need as described in Applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application for “Mobile Conferencing and Audio Sharing Technology,” Ser. No. 11/208,147, filed on Aug. 19, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
However, the need for wireless conferencing communications extends well beyond the context and framework of traditional wired and cellular conference calls and wireless non-call conferencing. For example, the need exists for a wireless communications device that not only allows local participants to wirelessly participate in conference calls and to wirelessly conference with other local participants in a non-call setting, but also permits participants to wirelessly share content (such as audio and/or video content, including stereo music and the like), and to wirelessly conference with any audio device and/or application that supports the appropriate wireless communications protocol, such as Bluetooth (“BT”), Ultra-Wideband (“UWB”), or future technologies.
Similarly, a need exists for a wireless communications device that permits local participants to wirelessly share audio and/or video content while awaiting a conference call and, when the conference call is initiated, or when a non-call conference is desired, to seamlessly switch from wireless content sharing to wireless conference calling or wireless non-call conferencing. Once the wireless conference call and/or wireless non-call conference is complete, the device would permit local participants to return to wireless content sharing.
Such a wireless communications device also would allow multiple local participants, through the use of a personal computer or a suitable personal communications device, for example, to wirelessly conference on “calls” made using voice-over-IP (“VoIP”) technology (such as those services currently offered by Vonage, Skype, and the like), and to wirelessly conference on audio and/or video “chats” using webcams (such as through the MSN's Messenger service and AOL's Instant Messenger service). The use of such a device in such applications would eliminate the troublesome issues of feedback (often created in such situations when a microphone is located in close proximity to a speaker) and clipping and distortion (often caused when many local participants attempt to speak at the same time or speak loudly in an attempt to be heard over other local participants).
Further, taking the wireless conferencing communications concept a step further, such a device would permit conferencing among local participants across a large local area through the use of repeaters. Such a device could be used, for example, by a security team in an office building or sports arena to communicate via wireless conferencing, replacing traditional one-way “walkie talkie”-style communications devices.
Accordingly, a need exists for a wireless communications device that satisfies all of the foregoing needs. The wireless communications connection device of the present invention satisfies the foregoing needs.